Code Mistborn
by Slavok
Summary: Lelouch vi Britannia, a prince in exile presumed dead, planned to overthrow the Empire as soon as he acquired the power to do so. Fortunately for him, Vin, the Ascendant Warrior lost in a strange world, knows a few things about overthrowing empires.
1. Chapter 1

Code Mistborn

Chapter One

Vin felt cold, inside and out. She always did when she was being thawed out. Her captors were a cautious lot, and turned her blood to ice whenever they weren't testing her. How they did that without killing her, she didn't know, and it was one of the many things they refused to tell her.

She opened her eyes and saw … nothing. Only darkness. Shadows in place of the garish lights of the sterile laboratories she had stayed in. Her eyes slowly adjusted, and two blurry figures came into focus.

The first was tall and thin, a lanky boy a few years younger than her, his face twisted into a scowl. "Poison gas, Suzaku? This girl? Looks more like a prisoner to me."

He wore a black suit that Vin didn't recognize, but the other boy–the same age, a bit broader in the shoulders with brown hair–was dressed as a soldier. Vin tensed instinctively, but if anything the soldier with wide, green eyes looked even more innocent than the first.

"All I know is what they've told me, Lelouch! The briefing said it was a chemical weapon."

 _Chemical weapon_? Well, that wasn't untrue, if a bit of an understatement. She had killed two gods in her lifetime, which was bound to be a record in most parts of the Cosmere. More importantly, these two young men were not expecting to find her, which meant that something had gone wonderfully wrong.

"And all I know is what's right in front of me!" the first one, Lelouch, snapped. He started undoing the straps that bound her, starting with her arms. The layer of frost that had covered her began to melt. "The terrorists and Britannia both want power, and they don't care who gets hurt in the process. The only difference is that Britannia actually knows what it's doing, so if you're really serious about saving as many lives as possible, you'll help me get this girl away from both of them."

Suzaku hesitated, but only for a moment, and started unbinding Vin's legs. This was … fortunate for her, which immediately filled her with dread. _Never trust anyone bringing you good news_ , her brother, Reen, had always said. How likely was it that a soldier and a … civilian? And a civilian would come across her completely unguarded? It was more likely that her captors were pretending to let her escape to trick her into revealing something.

But if she was wrong, could she risk letting go of this chance? No. An exit, even if it was bait in a trap, was still an exit, and she had a few tricks her captors didn't know about yet. _There's always another secret._

"You're wrong," Suzaku said. "About Britannia, at least. This was all a misunderstanding–a case of misinformation. You'll see."

Lelouch scoffed as he fumbled with the straps around her face that acted as a gag. Or a muzzle. She _had_ managed to bite two of her captors before they started taking her seriously. The second time she had managed to take someone's ear off. It was worth it.

"Thank you," Lelouch said, "but I'd rather _not_ stay to find out what happens when your questionably benevolent dictators find out what we know."

"Oh, it's too late for that," Suzaku said calmly. "They're already on their way."

Lelouch dropped her, and she plopped against the gravelly floor. "What? Why?"

"Because I alerted my squad a few minutes ago."

" _Why_?"

"Because a few minutes ago I thought you were a terrorist with a chemical weapon. But don't worry. My squad captain … well, he hates my guts, but he's always fair."

Lelouch stood up and looked around. "After seven years, you're still as innocent as a child and as clever as a brick. But they're not here yet, so we have time. We are going to …" His voice trailed off as the rhythm of footsteps echoed through the ruined building they were in. "… die. We are all going to die."

"Hey, that's them!" Suzaku said cheerfully. He smiled at Lelouch. "Don't worry, I'll handle this."

The footsteps grew louder until a group of ten or so men appeared from around a corner, pointing lights and guns at them. They didn't have guns in Scadriel, but during her brief stay in this world, she had grown intimately familiar with the weapon. "Pewter testing," they had called it. The man with one ear had come up with that one. While Suzaku wore body armor and a helmet, these men wore red uniforms with matching hats. One of them in the front and middle of the group had a more exorbitant hat. An officer.

She had a chance. Not a good one, but she had always made the most of near impossibilities. She trusted Lelouch's pessimism over Suzaku's faith, and she put her plan, such as it was, into motion.

She bit her lip. Hard.

"Private Kururugi!" the officer spat. "You stupid monkey, you have gone too far! You were ordered to find the pod, not open it!"

Suzaku ran up to him, as eager as a dog hoping to get a treat instead of a boot. "Captain, sir! There has been a mistake! There was no poison gas, it was … I think a hostage or something."

"Again, too far! You have no right to question orders, only to follow them."

His eyes met hers for a moment before moving towards Lelouch. The boy froze, unable to do anything besides feel _afraid_ , and Vin felt certain that this was no trick. She knew what he was feeling. She had spent most of her life feeling that way. Helpless, capable of nothing besides hoping that she wouldn't be important enough to bother killing. She needed more _time_!

Her mouth tasted like blood, and she sucked on the cut on her lip like a babe at its mother's breast.

"But you have shown initiative, boy," the officer continued. "So I'll give you the honor of killing the terrorist yourself."

Suzaku turned around, as though hoping to find an enemy hiding in the shadows, but he only saw Lelouch. "Oh, no, sir, that's not a terrorist, that's a civilian, just someone at the wrong place at the wrong time."

The officer scowled. "Wrong place? Wrong time? That's what terrorism means, boy! Learn it! And for the _last_ time, don't question, obey!"

Suzaku smiled at Lelouch, his back turned on the officer. "And shoot him? No, sir. I will not shoot him."

The officer sighed in mild annoyance. "Well, your funeral, kid." A gun went off, the bang slightly muffled, and Suzaku fell to the ground.

"Suzaku!" Lelouch screamed. He breathed rapidly, and when he looked from Suzaku's prone body to the officer, he seemed to understand that he was next.

The officer studied him for a moment. "Brittanian. And a student, no less. You really are in the wrong place at the wrong time, unless the JLP has sunk to a new low."

"Wait!" Lelouch said. He swallowed. "Wait, before you kill me, there's just one thing I want to know."

The officer laughed out loud. "Is that all? I'm sure you want a lot more than that, like old age, but I'm going to have to say no."

 _Too late_. Vin stood up. Her legs felt like jelly, but she was ready. Because she had learned something when she had bitten off that man's ear and tasted his blood. She had learned that blood was full of iron.

She burned the metal in her stomach, and blue lines that only she could see appeared from her chest to every bit of metal around her: the truck behind her, supports beams in the building, and to the officer himself, the metal in his boots, belt buckle, _gun._ She Pulled on the last line, yanking the weapon from his hands. He stumbled forwards as the gun flew through the air, and Vin caught it with both hands.

She offered it to Lelouch. "Do you know how to use this?"

He looked at her in shock. Most people of this world were confused when they first saw Allomancy, but he recovered quickly and took the thing, his face twisting into an angry, hungry smile as he fired shot after shot in quick succession. The other soldiers raised their weapons, but Vin Pulled those away too, using the truck behind her as an anchor. More guns pelted at her than she could catch, but they stung far less than bullets. When Lelouch's gun was empty he grabbed another one from her arms, and the unarmed soldiers began to run. Vin Pulled at the metal in their boots, tripping them, and they screamed until Lelouch silenced them.

He took a third gun and systematically shot each one of the soldiers in the head, out of mercy or efficiency Vin couldn't tell. It was only when each enemy was unquestionably dead did he kneel down next to Suzaku. His hand, which had been steady throughout the fight and the slaughter, trembled as he touched his friend's shoulder. He whispered something that Vin couldn't hear, possibly a prayer, but she stayed back to give him some privacy.

And then he started to laugh. It wasn't the broken, bitter laugh that she had suspected, but one of relief. "Is he alive?" Vin asked.

"Alive? The bullet didn't even break the skin. It caught on a pocket watch of all things! He'll wake up with a bruise and a broken rib, and knowing him he won't even call in sick. I swear, he's immortal." He turned towards her and his eyes narrowed. "But you … I'd ask you what the Brittanians wanted with you, but you've already answered that question. What was that, anyway? Telekinesis? Magnetism?"

Vin didn't answer. Allomancy wasn't something that she wanted to explain.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter," he said, "as long as you can do it consistently. Can I ask your name?"

Her lip had stopped bleeding, leaving a rancid aftertaste. "Vin."

"Lelouch," he said with a nod. "A pleasure." He stepped over the bodies, doing his best not to look at them. "If I may make an educated guess, Vin, I suspect you have found yourself a victim of Clovis' closet curiosity with the supernatural, and have been his welcome and unhappy guest. At this point, he will do what he can to keep you a secret, either by killing you or everyone else. Fortunately for you, hiding from the _royal_ _family_ is my area of expertise."

He said _royal_ with a sneer and _family_ as a curse. "So you'll help me?" Vin asked. "In exchange for what?"

He cocked his head. "Just out of the goodness of my heart and the desire to spite the Third Prince in any way I can."

"You're a saint," she said dryly.

He bowed. "Absolutely, Lady Vin. I am Lelouch, the patron saint of vengeance, treason, and regicide. Though, if you're interested, I have another offer for you."

"What?"

"You don't know how to use a gun," Lelouch said. "You could have shot those men yourself, but you gave it to me instead. Despite your abilities, you were not clever enough to avoid capture, and lastly, you have no money. I can help you with all of these, but I've been playing hide and seek long enough to know that you can only play until you lose, and honestly, I prefer chess. So my offer is a simple one."

He smiled at her, hungrily, like when he first grabbed the gun but more so. He was dangerous, but he might be useful.

"How would you like to overthrow an empire with me?"

WWW

A/n You know, I found out that there aren't any Mistborn/Code Geass crossovers on this site, which is a shame because they fit together _so well_! Seriously, I've just written, like, five pages of research notes with my editor working out how Code Geass is Cosmere. I was not forcing anything for the sake of headcanon, I swear.

And speaking of my editor, thank you Magery for editing this.

Expect future chapters to be longer. I don't really like long first chapters, so this is more of a sampler than anything else, just to see if people are interested in this or not. And if you _are_ interested in this, then Lelouch vi Britannia commands you to … wait, he doesn't have that power in this story, does he? Then he politely asks you to leave a review, and I promise no one is Soothing you emotions to manipulate you.


	2. Chapter 2

Code Mistborn

Chapter Two

"'You are a work of art, Szeth-son-Neturo, a god. And each day, Makkek throws dung at you.'  
'Who are you?' Szeth repeated.  
'An Admirer of the arts.'"  
-The Way of Kings

Lelouch was never one to balk at impossibilities. So what if he found a girl in a pod labeled as toxic gas with, for lack of a more technical term, magic powers? What mattered was how he could use the situation, and the girl in the white prison uniform could be very useful. She could draw small objects like guns towards her, a rather helpful prospect when facing, well, any infantry ever, and he suspected that was only the beginning of what she could do.

"Overthrow an empire with you?" Vin asked. Even when she was looking at him, she seemed to be watching everywhere at once, keeping track of every exit and anything that could hide an ambush. Lelouch could think seven moves into the future without trying, but she could see three hundred and sixty degrees at once. "Why would I need your help with that?"

Lelouch restrained a smirk. If she wasn't bluffing or hopelessly arrogant, then she could be exactly what he needed. "Of course," he said smoothly. "It's only fair that I offer you my resumé first." He had already seen what she could do. All he did was … he killed ten men. He tried not to think about it. The truth was, it was easy. When he pulled the trigger, he felt nothing but rage and recoil, but _remembering_ it, remembering how he had made them scream and then silenced their screams? That made him feel sick.

They walked through the abandoned parking garage, away from the dead Britannian soldiers. The building was so riddled with cracks in the walls and floor he doubted that it had been used since the war ended seven years ago. As a parking garage, that was. What need was there for a parking garage when so few Japanese in the ghettos could afford a car?

It was still used as a shelter, though. He rounded a corner and found the inhabitants, though if they were squatters who lived there or hapless victims seeking refuge from Britannia's indifferent violence, he couldn't tell. The first was an old man, his skin wrinkled and leathery, his limbs taut with muscles from years of hard labor long after a Britannian would have retired. The second was a child, her long black hair spread out on the floor beneath her like an inverted sunburst, brown eyes wide, mouth open and frozen in shock as rigor mortis set in.

There were twenty, thirty bodies in total, with no weapon or Britannian casualty in sight. He didn't look away. He couldn't. He needed this carnage, this atrocity, to keep his resolve. He burned the image into his mind, and the sound of the screaming soldiers he had shot faded. Nothing pricked a man's conscience like cold blooded murder, and nothing soothed it like the same sin from a different hand.

Behind him, Vin inhaled sharply. "What happened here?" she whispered.

 _My family._ "Prince Clovis wants to keep you a secret," he said, keeping his voice steady, if not calm. "And he's willing to slaughter civilians and terrorists alike to get you back."

"A mass execution," she said. "These things never change."

 _You've witnessed this sort of thing before_. He filed that thought away for later contemplation. "But for my resumé, by the end of the day, if not the hour, Clovis will be dead. _Justice_ , Vin. _That_ is what I offer you."

Outside, he heard the rumbling of an oncoming engine matched by the scrape of a Knightmare's landspinners, and the first part of his plan fell into his lap. He ran outside and flagged the fifteen foot tall military machine down like a taxi.

"Over here!" He raised his arms in the air. With the pistol he had acquired earlier tucked away behind him, he looked like a harmless Britannian student, and as long as Vin stayed hidden, he could talk his way into his first piece on the board.

The Sutherland veered towards him and stopped. "What are you doing here?" the pilot's voice rang out. "This area is off limits!"

Lelouch kept his voice bored as though having seven and a half metric tons of metal pointed at him was mildly entertaining, and seeing Elevens being mowed down in the street was a slight annoyance. "My name is Alexandre Dumas. My father is a duke. Escort me out of this 'restricted area,' and I'll see you rewarded."

The pilot, a woman by the sound of her voice, hesitated. She likely had orders to kill anyone without clearance to be in the area, but Britannian soldiers were a mercenary lot. Suzaku was a marked exception, but most of them would shoot their own mothers with the right incentive.

"I'll need to see your ID." The Knightmare's hatch opened and a tan woman with long, platinum hair stepped out, steadily pointing a gun at him.

"Yes, yes," he said in the same bored tone, the voice of a spoiled aristocrat. The pilot lowered herself to the ground and moved further away from the safety of her Knightmare frame. "Vin, if you would be so kind?"

"Who?" the pilot said, but before she could act, her gun flew from her hand and Lelouch pulled out his own.

"Thank you," he said, smiling. "Now, I'll just need your ignition key and code, and I'll be on my way."

The woman scowled. Unlike the infantry squad he had gunned down, Knightmare pilots had _pride_ , and he was treading on it. "I have the key right here, and I'm sure you'd be able to pry it from my cold dead fingers without much trouble, but there's no way you're going to get the code from my cold dead lips."

"See, that's why you're going to give it to me now so your lips will remain warm, alive, and ready to be continually applied to the rectal areas of your commanding officer."

The woman rolled her eyes, seemingly unconcerned with the gun pointed at her. "You say that, but something tells me that the phrase 'outlived your usefulness' is going to make an appearance somewhere between the time I give you what you want and you shoot me in the head."

This conversation had gone differently in his mind. "There are a lot of other places I could shoot you first."

"Five without reloading," she said, sounding bored. She was bluffing, he knew. Anyone bored with a gun to her head had to be, but she was doing a remarkably good job. "And I still end up dead at the end. No, kid, if you want my help, make me an offer where I walk away _alive_ at the end of this."

He sighed. "You are clearly too smart for your own good. It looks like I'll just have to shoot you and hope that the next pilot I lure out here is dumber." Her bored expression faltered for a moment, but she seemed to suspect he was bluffing. "Unless you have any ideas, Vin?"

"I might," she said, coming out from inside the building. "Do you have any brass or zinc on you?" The pilot looked at her in confusion, but not recognition.

He paused. Zinc was the thirtieth element on the periodic table. It was sometimes used in batteries, but lithium was more common. Brass became the dominant metal for tools and weapons after the Copper Age, though these days it was mostly decorative.

"My coat buttons are brass." He thought they were, at least. He was as detail oriented as they came, but he had never bothered to test the materials of his school uniform.

"Give it to me."

Lelouch took off his coat, careful to keep his pistol pointed at the pilot at all times when he pulled his arms out of his sleeves, and offered Vin his black coat. He tried to figure out how those two metals could be useful in this situation, but he couldn't think of anything. Wires, currents, ductility …

Lelouch heard the sound of ripping fabric behind him, and the pilot's eyes grew wide. "What is she _doing_?"

Lelouch smirked. "I'm not falling for that. I'd be a fool to take my eyes off of you for a second."

"No, really, she's _eating_ the … ehgh!"

Vin approached the woman and smiled. "Sorry about this. I know you don't want to be here either. Can you tell me your name?"

The pilot _smiled_ , not as a sneer, but a genuine smile as though Vin were a new friend. "I'm Viletta. Viletta Nu."

Vin stepped closer and put her hands on the sides of Viletta's head, pulling the pilot towards her so their foreheads were almost touching. If Viletta tried something, Lelouch wouldn't be able to fire without risking hitting Vin.

"Tell me, Viletta," Vin said, her voice losing its gentle tone. "Do you know what happens when you die?"

"What?"

"When you die, every shred of you is burned away from the only world you know, and you wake up in a strange and beautiful and _cruel_ hell that you can _never_ escape from. You will remember everyone who ever loved you, and you will _never_ be able to see them again."

It was sentimental nonsense, all of it, but Vin spoke with such conviction Lelouch thought that she had experienced death first hand or, more likely, she was a natural and practiced thespian. It shouldn't have worked, but the pilot, the stubborn, proud pilot who had laughed at his threats, began to sob. Tears rolled down her angular face as she fell to her knees, and Vin dropped to her knees with her.

"But that doesn't have to happen to you!" Vin said, her voice earnest. "Enough people have died already, and you don't have to be one of them! You can still go home, see your friends, _live your life_ , just as long as you help us first!"

Viletta wept, but she spoke through her tears, handed Vin the ignition key, and gave her the code.

"Thank you," Vin said gently, and she gave the woman a hug, and smashed a chunk of concrete into the side of her head. Viletta fell and Vin stood. "You know how to use one of those things, right?"

WWW

A few minutes later, both of them were in the cockpit of the Sutherland. It was designed for one pilot to fit comfortably, and since Lelouch was tall and thin and Vin was short and thin, the situation was merely moderately cramped.

He went over his growing list of Vin's abilities. She could manipulate physical objects, yanking guns out of their owners hands towards her, but more promising (and disconcerting) was her mental manipulation. What was that? Mind control? Hypnotic suggestion? Was she using it on him?

He evaluated his recent behavior compared to his norm. He was in a stolen Knightmare frame and was plotting to kill the Viceroy of Area Eleven, but while that was something that he had never done before, it was something that he had wanted to do for a very long time. Still, Vin had been contained for a reason, and he was only scratching the surface of what that was.

"Interesting," he said.

"What?" Vin asked.

He pointed to one of the screens in front of them. "The Knightmare keeps a log of communications, and Prince Clovis has ordered the extermination of the entire Shinjuku ghetto."

Vin frowned, staring at the screen. "Because of me?"

He nodded. "Why is he so determined to keep you a secret?" Vin bit her lip, but didn't answer. "Vin? This could be important." He didn't want to pry. That would give her an excuse to pry in return, and he had more than his share of secrets.

"He … stole me from the Emperor."

The image of a mature, white-haired man flashed before his eyes. The Emperor of Britannia, his father, was everything Lelouch was not–white where Lelouch's hair was black, broad shouldered while he was thin, but they had the same violet eyes. His stomach lurched in fear, but his heart soared in excitement at the knowledge that _he_ was involved.

 _This just keeps getting better and better and worse and worse._

"Oh," he said. "That's … interesting."

"Yup."

He continued to scroll through the information the Knightmare provided him, seeing it as the most valuable weapon he had stolen. The Sutherland was equipped with a remarkable amount of mobility and firepower, but the Britannian military was full of pilots who could use that better than he could. He had the element of surprise, but that wouldn't be enough to get through Clovis's honor guard, even with the terrorists serving as a distraction.

And then he found it, a note of buried treasure in the form of a shipment of Sutherlands on a train passing through the ghetto, and a plan blossomed into form. The terrorists were truly excellent people, so desperately willing to kill and die just to prove that they were not (yet) dead, and if they had something more effective than handguns, then the prince's honor guard would cease to be a problem.

The terrorists already had one Knightmare, an old Glasgow that was nearly scrap metal to begin with, but its pilot was skilled enough to keep it going. He scanned radio frequencies until he found hers. The Japanese underground managed their frequencies through a simple, twelve part algorithm, and he was able to find the right one on his fourth try.

"If you want to get out of this alive," he said when he found it, "you'll need to do exactly what I say."

The pilot's voice came back scratchy through the static, but he could still hear the tension in it. "What? Who is this?"

"I'm your guardian angel," he said dryly. "Head west and follow the train tracks, and I'll help you turn this fight around."

She hesitated, but only for a moment before obeying. That suited him perfectly, because desperate souls, like chess pieces, didn't waste time with questions.

WWW

It only took ten minutes to put his pieces into position. Ha. _Only_ ten minutes. It was rare for him to find a chess game that took that long, but the game of real life military combat went so much deeper than the board game. The choices were infinite, the rules vague, and the pieces had to be _named_.

He stuck to chess notation. That was what came most naturally to him, but P-5 kept on insisting on being called "Tamaki." Well, Lelouch had just given P-5 and all his friends state of the art weaponry, so if Lelouch wanted to change his name for that, then he darn well could.

The rest of the terrorists, though, were ecstatic. He had given them a fighting chance, and for that they would follow him barefoot into hell.

He hated taking so long. Each second he wasted, the massacre went unopposed, but this was a new game he was in, novel and terrible, and he only had one chance to make sure everything was perfect.

He went through the mental game board one last time. Since he had captured his Sutherland from an enemy, it was still registered in the Britannians' IFF network–Identification Friend or Foe–but he ordered the transponders of the terrorists' removed. That served two purposes for him. First, the Britannians would be unable to track his units until they stumbled right onto them, while all of their units showed up on Lelouch's map. Second, the terrorists were blind as well as invisible, and while Lelouch could be their eyes, they had no choice but to do exactly as he said.

He had fifteen Sutherlands to fight with while Clovis had fifty, but Lelouch had won against worse odds, and Clovis had never been that good at chess.

 _The game is set._

"Q-1, when you reach the alleyway, turn left. P-2, P-7, when she exits, take out her tail." A blue icon on his screen faded. It was _working_! "P-4, B-2, fire through the wall east of your position. P-1, 3, and 5, go west to cut off the enemy support."

He rattled off commands, his forces obeyed with less and less resistance, and one by one his enemies fell. Then his brother grew desperate and sent in every Knightmare he had, Lelouch ordered his forces to collapse the subway tunnels, and his enemies all fell at once.

He laughed. This is what his life had been missing since the day he was born! Purpose _. Power._ There was no going back to the man he was, nor did he want to.

Then his men started screaming.

"Ishida's unit got wiped out! They ejected in time, but their Sutherlands are destroyed!"

Ishida … that was P-2 through 5. Honestly, it would be easier if they just stuck to numbers, but the Japanese got testy about that sort of thing, Japanese terrorists especially. More concerning was that the Britannian forces hadn't shown up on his map, meaning that they had caught onto what he was doing and disabled their IFF transponders.

Well, he could handle a more level playing field. "How many enemy units were there?"

"Just one, but I've never seen anything so–AAHH!"

"R-2!" Five down in two seconds. He couldn't afford those kinds of losses. He had spread his forces out too thin, trying to make his army seem greater than it was. "P-1, R-1, and R-3, the enemy's east of you. Engage at a distance."

"Yes sir. I see it, it's–OH HOLY–" The transmission cut off.

"P-1?" Not good. Worse, if Lelouch guessed the unit's position correctly, it was getting far too close to his location. "B-1 and 2, go south, 3 and 4, north. Catch him in a pincer attack and–"

"AAAGGHH!"

Lelouch swallowed. It wasn't a Sutherland he was dealing with. Gloucester? No, this thing was custom, so he knew _nothing_ about its weaknesses, abilities, design flaws. Compound that with the terrorists' inexperience with piloting Knightmares, and he was royally …

A Knightmare appeared in the abandoned building Lelouch had stationed himself in. It was white with gold trim. Lelouch guessed that it was designed after the White Knight image, but in that instant all he could think of was the Four Horsemen. _Death on a pale horse._

While Sutherlands were advanced machines, the new Knightmare moved with such fluid grace it seemed alive, and it closed the distance in an instant. It didn't have any weapons besides its Slash Harkens, but it jumped, spun in the air, and _kicked_ him. The situation was so absurd he would have laughed, if his plans weren't crumbling down around him like the building he was in. Before the pale horse could finish him off, the red Glasgow intervened, giving him the two seconds he needed to escape.

WWW

Vin didn't understand much of what was going on. Most of what she had seen of this world was inside the different laboratories,with men in white coats and horrible ideas, and only recently had it occurred to her that the giant suits of armor roaming around had people in them. Well, she had _been_ one of those people, and as she climbed out of the box she and Lelouch had been sitting in, she vowed never to be one of those people again. She was an Allomancer, which meant that metal belonged on the inside, not the outside. Though at the moment, her internal metals weren't agreeing with her.

"Well, that could have gone better," Lelouch said calmly. "Invaluable learning experience, though." He turned to her. "Are you alright? You seem ill."

"I've been better," she admitted. "The brass you gave me wasn't Allomantically pure."

"The button?" He touched the ripped portion of his coat. "Of course not. It likely had some paint on it."

She wasn't in the mood to explain Allomancy to him right now, so she let it slide. "It doesn't look like your uprising is rising that much. We should focus on getting out of here alive instead of killing princes."

"Normally, I'd agree with you," he said. "But this area is surrounded. Once Clovis is sure the terrorists are out of Sutherlands, the infantry will resume its advance, slaughtering anyone they find. I might be able to talk my way out of it, but not without more trouble than I'd care to go through, and you wouldn't be able to get through it at all."

Vin couldn't deny that. This world had too many rules that she didn't understand.

"If we still had a Knightmare," he continued, "we could break through the perimeter, but I don't see that happening soon. No, in this sort of game, either you win or you die, and I intend to win."

It was a desperate situation, but her whole life had been a series of desperate situations. "So, what's the plan? Contact your new friends and mobilize them on foot?" Despite her time spent with Elend building his empire, she didn't know much about managing armies. She had been a bodyguard, an assassin, a thief, and a conwoman, but she had never been a leader.

"The terrorists? I don't think so. We don't have much time and we can't afford to be noticed. His defenses should be drained, down to little more than infantry, so we should be able to reach him on our own, but I will need to know what need to do what you can."

But what he could give her wasn't likely to be Allomantically pure. When she was testing metals to find the right alloy of aluminum, she had a supply of pewter and a soft bed to make things easier. "Do you have any pewter?"

He shook his head. "If I had a chemical plant or even a lab, I could get you some, but not here, not now."

She bit her lip, which was still sore from earlier. Pewter made her stronger and faster, giving her a durability that defied her frail appearance. Before, she would burn it constantly during any fight, or just to stay awake. "How about steel?"

WWW

A few minutes of scavenging later, they were ready to go. Vin had an iron nail, a steel screw, and one more brass button in her stomach, and a handful of coins in each hand hidden by the overly large sleeves of her prison uniform. Lelouch had a soldier's uniform that didn't have an obvious amount of blood on it and a plan.

The plan was for Private Dumas to arrest her and take her to Clovis's headquarters. Vin hated that plan, but she couldn't come up with another one with the resources they had. Left to herself, she would have impersonated a messenger and Soothed her way past the guards, but everyone here sent messages electronically. From her own experience, she considered the power of instantaneous communication godlike, but in this world it was commonplace.

Lelouch dragged Vin through the patrolling soldiers by the elbow, pointing his gun at her. He wasn't rough, but he pretended to be, just as Vin pretended to be a helpless, insignificant captive, all the while burning brass to Sooth away the suspicion of everyone who saw them. No one even spoke to them until they reached the mobile fortress where Clovis resided.

"Halt," the soldier said. He was a few inches taller than Lelouch and much broader. He looked to be in his thirties and had a remarkably small chin. "This is His Highness Prince Clovis's headquarters, not an incarceration facility."

"Yes sir, I know sir, Private Dumas reporting," Lelouch said, bobbing his head up and down in imitation of an inexperienced soldier. "I was ordered to bring the prisoner to Prince Clovis directly."

The soldier frowned. "What? Why?" Vin Soothed away most of his suspicion, but emotional Allomancy worked better as a scalpel then as a hammer, and it was most effective when it felt natural.

"I do not know, sir, as a rule I don't ask questions, but Officer Locke seemed to think that the prince would want to see her. He would have brought her himself, except he didn't make it. We were ambushed by a bunch of dirty Elevens, sir, but I got the impression that the prisoner was the sort of thing the higher-ups would want to keep quiet."

The man frowned. "Still, I can't let just anyone in to see the prince. He's a busy man, and it's my job to keep people out."

"Yes sir, very good sir, but if you could contact one of your superiors? I know it's asking a lot, but Officer Locke thought it was urgent. The prisoner's name is Vin."

Vin Pushed harder on his emotions, and finally the man shrugged. "You better not be wrong about this, Private. Wait here." He entered the fortress, and Lelouch let out a sigh of relief.

"So far so good," he said softly. "Far less dramatic than your performance with the Sutherland pilot, but I suppose you wouldn't want to make a scene just yet."

Vin nodded. "If I Push too hard, anyone would see they're being manipulated."

"I see. What comes next is going to require far less subtlety. How are you holding up?"

She wanted to throw up. "I've been worse."

The man returned, wide-eyed, and grabbed her by the arm and yanked her forward so sharply she nearly dropped some of her coins. "I don't know who you are, but His Highness wants to see you." Lelouch followed, but the man stopped him. "Not you. Just her."

"Forgive me, sir, but my commanding officer told me to see her delivered to the prince personally. It was his last order before he died. Also, I have information relating to her capture that His Highness will want to hear, and it will save a great deal of time if I simply accompany her."

Vin Pushed on his emotions just a bit, and he relented. "Fine, fine. But watch yourself. This is the Viceroy of Area Eleven you'll be speaking to."

He led Lelouch and dragged Vin through the fortress. The halls were narrow, but the bridge was wide. Good. Vin fought better in open spaces.

"The prisoner, Your Highness," the soldier said. He bowed and left.

Clovis stood in the center of the room. Even if Vin hadn't seen him before, she would have recognized him as the leader by his appearance. Or as a jester. The man looked ridiculous, in his purple and gold suit and white cape. A single lock of blond hair fell between his eyes, styled so meticulously that Vin suspected that he inspired more envy than lust in the opposite sex.

A leader, she knew, should stand out from the people he led that they might look up to him. Kelsier smiled when no one else could and bore scars that he shared only with the dead. Elend wore a white military suit in a world stained with ash. Clovis, though, just looked like a doll.

"Salvation!" he declared, approaching her. "Oh, what glorious miracle! What beautiful providence, for we are saved, gentlemen!" He was prone to exuberance and drama. Well, she could use that. She Soothed away his caution and his fear.

"Salvation, yes," Bartley said, wiping a handkerchief across his brow. "But miracle? Hardly. There's hardly anything left that could have gone wrong but didn't."

General Bartley Asprius was the prince's right hand man, and the only one in the room Vin hated more than the prince himself. Bald, bulbous, and ambitious, he led the team charged with researching her, as though the secret to her Allomancy was in her flesh and blood and could be mass produced like their legions of machines.

He was more cautious than his master, so Vin Soothed him too so he wouldn't care that her hands were unbound. After all, she was a scrawny girl in a room full of armed soldiers. What threat could she be to anyone?

Clovis waved his hand dismissively. That was one of his favorite gestures. "Don't be such a pessimist, Bartley. We've won!" Vin Pushed on everything besides his exhaustion, and he sat down on his throne. "And nearly as importantly, we're done. Have the men pull out. I swear, I never want to hear the word 'Shinjuku' again for the rest of my life."

"Are you certain, Your Highness?" Bartley said. "This district has proven to be a hotbed of terrorist activity. Perhaps we should finish clearing it out?"

Clovis sighed. "The terrorists are dead. I don't know how they managed to get ahold of those Sutherlands, but they have been dealt with, and the matter is done."

"But Your Highness–"

"It is _done_. Unless you have another reason for this insubordination."

"Yes, Your Highness. I suspect that the subject may be manipulating your emotions."

Vin clenched her fists around her coins in frustration. All it would take would be a throw and a Steelpush, and the general would be filled with bleeding holes, but not yet.

Clovis looked at her, suspicion glinting in his eyes. Vin left it there. Nothing would be more suspicious than suppressed suspicion. Finally, he shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I'd notice if I felt sympathy or compassion for the rabble, but I don't feel anything unusual at all."

Vin kept her face passive. The emotional metals, zinc and brass, were the ones they had tested most. They were two of the external metals so they were easy to observe, and were considered less dangerous than iron and steel, but in the experiments, Vin always burned the metals with crude force while subtlety was the key. In fact, brass was even more subtle than zinc. In some ways, zinc was more powerful. It could make the targets feel things that they otherwise wouldn't, Rioting their emotions, but brass worked the opposite way. It Soothed emotions, sometimes all emotions but one. The effect was similar; one emotion shone above all the others, but with brass, the one emotion the targets felt most was the one least touched.

And of course Vin wouldn't make Clovis feel something like _compassion_. The prince was full of apathy, vanity, and had enough narcissism for ten, but not compassion.

"But–" Bartley started.

"I am _not_ wearing that stupid hat," Clovis said. "And that's final. Besides, do you really think that this creature, this _goddess_ , would waste her power protecting a lesser race like the Elevens? It's laughable!" Vin relented a bit, allowing his pride to swell. "In fact, I'll give the order myself."

One of the officers set up a device that Vin didn't recognize, and Clovis began to speak. "All forces, cease fire! This is a command from your Viceroy, Prince Clovis la Britannia! Enough damage has been done to our fair country, enough blood split, and I say _no more_! Let those who live, live, and those who have fallen, let them be mourned. So commands the royal Viceroy, Prince Clovis!"

He spoke with such passion and such pain that anyone would think that he cared, but it was all a lie. He finished his message, gave himself a self congratulatory smile, and turned to Lelouch. "Soldier, in bringing me this prisoner, you have pleased your prince greatly. What is your name?"

Lelouch took off his helmet and smiled. Clovis opened his eyes wide and gasped, showing more surprise than when he had seen Vin. "You!"

Lelouch's smile widened. "After all these years, I'm touched you still remember me, brother."

Vin launched into action. The entire room was metal, so she could Steelpush and Ironpull herself in any direction. She Pushed herself right at Clovis, hooking her arm across his neck and swinging around him. She dropped a handful of coins and shot them at the men on the left. They wore fine officer uniforms instead of a soldier's body armor, and three of them fell, dead.

"She's Investing!" Bartley screamed. "Remove anything that's metal!"

Anything? Guns could be dropped, but the belts, buttons, and boots they were would take more time, and these men were not prepared for her. Clovis fell to the ground, both physically and emotionally off balance, and one of the officers pulled a gun on her.

She burned steel, Pushing the gun away, but he gripped it too tightly and he weighed more, so instead she was Pushed. The shot went wild, though, ringing loudly in the room. She threw her second handful of coins at him and Pushed, killing both him and the man next to him.

By then, the last of the lesser officers had stripped himself of metals, and charged at her, barefoot and unarmed. Had he been a proper Hazekiller, armed with a dueling cane and a wooden shield, he might have had a chance with her in the state she was in, but he was nothing more than an amateur, dealing with powers he could not begin to understand.

She burned iron, Pulling herself across the room, crashing into him with her shoulder and knocking him to the ground. She Pulled herself upward toward the ceiling, and then in mid-air flared the metal, Pulling herself to the ground and landing on the man feet first. It was only a distance of a few feet, but it felt like she had jumped off the roof of a small building; the man's ribs cracked under the impact, and he coughed up blood.

Her legs felt weak beneath her. She usually burned pewter while fighting to strengthen her body, and the heavy scent of fresh blood in the air wasn't helping her nausea from burning impure metals, but she had one person left to kill.

She Pulled on one of the coins she had used and caught it. It was small, copper, and covered in blood. She turned to Bartley and readied steel.

"You shouldn't have kept me caged."

WWW

Lelouch watched the fight, if it could even be called that, without raising his gun. He wanted to witness Vin's abilities, and besides, she didn't seem to need his help. She was a thin girl a head shorter than him with black hair, and she had just slaughtered seven armed men in a matter of seconds.

Even better, she left Clovis alive, just for him. Lelouch smiled. "You know, this is exactly how I hoped our reunion would turn out. Sadly, you don't seem to happy to see me."

Clovis picked himself up off the floor. A puddle of blood had spread across the floor, staining the fingertips of one of his gloves red. He stumbled backwards and fell into his throne. "You're … you're alive."

"You were always an observant one."

Clovis swallowed. "What do you want? Money? I can pay you."

"What do I want? I'll give you a hint. It starts with a V, and ends with the Emperor as dead as you're about to be."

His eyes grew wide. "What? No, please, I can be useful to you!"

Lelouch pointed his gun at him. "You have been useful to me, brother. You have brought me into contact with my new friend here, and I have a feeling we're going to get along as well as blood and fire. But you've outlived your usefulness, and you know too much."

To the side, Vin began taking one of the officer's uniforms and putting it on over her own white prisoner clothes.

"She's using you!" Clovis blurted out. "She's using you, just like she used me."

"And I'm using her, too," Lelouch said. "That's how we'll get along together." He worried about that inside, especially how she had hinted that she could manipulate people so subtly that they wouldn't even notice, but he left his concerns unvoiced.

"You're a fool if you think you can control her! As big a fool as I was!"

Lelouch laughed. "See, that's the difference between you and me, Clovis. I don't see her as something to be controlled, I see her as something to be unleashed. Goodbye." He pulled the trigger, and Clovis spasmed and slumped in his throne with a hole in the middle of his forehead.

He felt cold and hot at the same time as he watched blood stream down his brother's face, and he had a flash of memory of happier times playing chess with the same man at the Aries Villa. Clovis had never won, but neither had he grown bitter at losing to a child seven years his junior. Each time the white king fell, he would laugh and tell him that it was only a matter of time before Lelouch defeated Schneizel.

But now, the game was over, check and mate, and Clovis wasn't laughing. Lelouch steeled himself, allowing himself no pity for his enemy. The happier times of the previous decade were another life. The path he had chosen was one of carnage.

"Now," he said abruptly, finally looking away, "we need to deal with the evidence. I'll show you how to build a weapon-grade explosive out of materials you might find in any military command center. The secret ingredient is the hand grenade."

WWW

A/n And here's the second chapter! Thank you everyone who has left a review, you're wonderful. And thank you Magery, for editing this chapter and making it coherent.

Since some of you either haven't read Mistborn or have read it so long ago you've forgotten all the details, here's a little guide to help you keep track of Vin's Allomantic abilities.

Ahem.

Ars Arcanum:

Allomancy is the ability to ingest metals and "burn" them for different abilities. There are sixteen base metals, as well as a few God metals (read, imaginary that the author made up).

Iron: Pulls metal towards you, or you to it, depending on what weighs more. Also grants the ability to see metal via blue lines from your center of mass to the metal in question.

Steel: Pushes metal away from you, or you from it. Grants same sight as iron.

Tin: Increases senses.

Pewter: Increases physical abilities, such as strength, speed, grace, stamina, durability, healing, etc.

Zinc: Inflames or Riots emotions.

Brass: Dampens or Soothes emotions.

Copper: Masks Allomancy and makes the user immune to emotional Allomancy.

Bronze: Allows user to sense Allomancy, unless the other Allomancer is burning Copper.

Aluminum: Wipes out Allomantic reserves.

Duralumin: Burns Allomantic reserves in a single burst.

Chromium: Wipes out another's reserves.

Nicrosil: Burns another's reserves in a single burst.

Gold: Reveals past self.

Electrum: Reveals future self.

Cadmium: Slows down time. Creates a bubble where objects appear to be nearly frozen in time from the outside looking in, while objects appear to be moving in a blur from the inside looking out.

Bendalloy: Speeds up time.

Copper, bronze, chromium, and nicrosil do nothing unless in the presence of another Allomancer, so unless I bring in another Mistborn character, you won't need to worry about them. Aluminum has little to no practical value, and burning gold is psychologically disturbing, so you probably won't need to worry about those either. If the remaining nine metals seem like a lot to take in, don't worry. I'll try to ease you into it as Vin burns each one for the first time in this story. If you have any other questions, comments, or existential crises, let me know and I'll do my best to get back to you.


	3. Chapter 3

Code Mistborn

Chapter Three

No one questioned the two soldiers who exited Clovis's headquarters moments before it exploded, or stopped them from making their way to the nearest residential building. There, Lelouch changed back into his school uniform and Vin scavenged what clothes she could find. Lelouch didn't know if the original residents had gone into hiding, or if they were dead, but either way, they didn't object.

After that, it was a literal walk in the park from the ghetto to the settlement, and they spent the evening at a five-star hotel, ordering room service. He thought about taking her to his home at Ashford Academy, but he dismissed the idea immediately. As much as he enjoyed treason, terrorism, and regicide as a hobby, it wasn't the sort of thing that he wanted to take home with him, not while Nunnally remained happily uninvolved.

"So," Vin said, picking at her meal. Lelouch had been surprised when she ordered the prime rib, but she seemed more interested in the steak knife than the steak itself. "What happens now?"

"Now we watch and listen. With the Viceroy dead, the different factions will attempt to seize power. If we keep them at eachother's throats, we should be able to keep this Area in chaos until the next Viceroy arrives. Meanwhile, I'll build a name for myself throughout the Japanese underground just in case I need their assistance in the future. And, of course, I'll look into acquiring the exact metals you need."

He could probably take advantage of one of the clubs on campus. He wouldn't be surprised if metallurgy was one of the one-hundred-and-eight clubs at Ashford, but if it wasn't, he'd talk to Milly and _make_ one. Or he could order the metals online. That worked too.

Vin nodded. "Before we make our next move, I'd like to get out a bit and … adjust."

She hadn't told him how long she had been a test subject, and he hadn't asked. "Fair enough," he said. "I'll come back here tomorrow afternoon and give you the grand tour of the settlement. I imagine you've seen enough of the ghetto already."

He'd have offered to come earlier, but he had school the next morning. The thought almost made him laugh. He had just murdered the Viceroy of Area Eleven, he was talking to a girl with supernatural powers, and he was worried about _school_. Still, it was best to appear as normal as possible for the next few days.

"Until then," Lelouch said, "I advise you to avoid interacting with anyone. There are racial tensions that could attract attention."

She raised an eyebrow. "What sort of tensions?"

It was Lelouch's turn to be confused, but Vin had probably not known freedom since before she came to Area Eleven. Hadn't she said that Clovis had stolen her from the Emperor? There was a chance that she didn't even know what part of the world she was in. "Here, the Britannians and the Japanese don't get along very well, as you may have noticed. You don't look like either." What was she, then? She didn't look Chinese or Indian. European? Australian? "The Britannians will recognize you as not one of them, and will assume you are inferior. The Japanese … they will also recognize you as not one of them, but they might understand that you aren't Britannian either. Or they might not."

"And of course, you're Britannian."

Lelouch nodded. A Britannian prince, confirmed by Clovis himself. There was no way he could deny that to her now.

"But not a very patriotic one," she added.

"It is one of my few virtues." She didn't ask the question he knew she was thinking, so he didn't answer it. "Well, you seem tired, and it's been a long day, so I'll see you tomorrow."

WWW

Vin waited until he had left before following him. She trailed him out the hotel and down a few streets, but she lost him when he went into a tunnel and got on one of the many machines that riddled this world.

Well, even if she had managed to keep up with him, he was probably taking the most convoluted route he could imagine back to wherever he lived. That's what she would have done. No matter. She'd follow him another night, when she had more metal reserves and a better understanding of the culture.

As things were, too many people were noticing her, and far more often than she liked. Not that she ever liked being noticed in the first place. Still, it was a hundred times worse when she was weak than when she was strong.

It was her clothes, she guessed. They were old and ill fitting, stolen from the … ghetto, he had called it? And now she was in the settlement. Interesting. Anywhere she went, she would be noticed until she found something less conspicuous, and Lelouch would be able to come and go without anyone giving him a second look.

Was that deliberate? Vin assumed it was. Lelouch had made it plain his intention to use her, and it only made sense that he would try to control her as much as he could, despite what he had said. Still, the Emperor had held her and hadn't managed to keep her. Clovis had studied her, and that had worked out even worse for him. If Lelouch wanted to try his hand at this game, let him. She had played before.

WWW

It turned out that there was a metallurgy club at Ashford. There were two people in it, and they insisted that the fumes from the smelter weren't as toxic as everybody said. They were more than helpful when Lelouch introduced himself as a member of the student council, and he left with a one pound ingot of iron, zinc, and tin, along with a steel file.

After that, he stopped by the chemistry lab and smuggled out a few grams of Cadmium. It was a toxic metal that was once used in batteries, and these days was sometimes used in lasers. In Vin's case, she used it for for _time dilations_. The rest, he decided, would have to wait.

He was wondering how he could acquire specific alloys of the remaining metals without arousing suspicion when he ran right into the Glasgow pilot from the day before. At least, he thought she was. He had only caught a glimpse of her at the time, while hiding behind a container marked as toxic gas, but she seemed the same height, build, and had the same red hair, even if it was styled differently now.

But what kind of person wrecked havoc in the ghetto one day and went to the most prestigious school in the settlement the next? Besides him, of course.

By the time he caught himself, he had already stared at her for two, possibly even three seconds. She hadn't noticed, thank goodness, but Rivalz had.

"Hey, Lelouch, I see you're enjoying the scenery, am I right?"

He started to deny it, but for once, his friend's assumption was actually more innocent than the truth. "That girl over there, she hasn't been in class for a while, has she?" If she had, he would have recognized her on the spot. He wasn't paranoid, he just liked to keep track of everyone he knew. Still, that didn't mean he had researched half the school, which was why Rivalz sometimes came in handy.

"Nope. She showed up the first day and hasn't been back since. Health problems. Still manages to email her assignments in on time and gets top grades despite, you know, never coming to class."

"And, how do you know this?"

Rivalz smiled. "You have your secrets, I have mine."

 _You hacked her GPA, didn't you?_ "Why, then?"

He drew a curvaceous silhouette in the air and shrugged. _Fair enough._

"And I'm guessing you already know her name."

He laughed. "Lelouch, bro, I know her bra size."

Knowing Milly, that was probably next to her GPA on the school records. "I'll settle for her name."

"Kallen Stadtfeld, you know, from the Stadtfeld House."

He recognized the name. The Stadtfeld family wasn't aristocratic, and had foregone power and prestige to go straight for the money. It didn't explain why Kallen would moonlight as a terrorist.

"Impressive. And of course, you already know her home address."

Rivalz gasped. "Lelouch! That would be creepy and stalkerish!"

"And?"

"And it's at 1909 Forty-Seventh Street."

He smiled. "Now for the challenge round. Phone number?"

Rivalz hesitated. "No, but I can find out. One sec." He approached Kallen where she sat chatting with her friends. Lelouch wondered briefly if they were all at Shinjuku the day before, but he doubted it. "Hey, gorgeous!" Rivalz said. "Can I get your number? It's for a friend."

"Um, do you promise to never call?"

"Like I said, it's for a friend." He came back a moment later with a broad smile on his face. "So who has two thumbs and tons of game? This guy!"

Lelouch smiled politely. "You know that number's fake, don't you?"

Rivalz rolled his eyes. "Is that your usual cynicism, or your newfound jealousy talking?"

"I am far too cynical to admit my jealousy for your ability to acquire fake phone numbers."

Rivalz laughed. "But seriously, if you want to get to know her better, just let Milly know you're interested, and Kallen will be on the student council before the day is out."

"Oh really." That could be useful if he wanted to keep an eye on the one member of the Japanese underground he knew by name. "Why would Milly do that?"

"She's desperate to get you laid."

He nearly coughed. "What?"

"Yeah, she has this weird obsession about getting you to lose your virginity."

" _What_?"

"How do you think I got invited?" He paused. "She also told me not to tell you that. So forget it."

"I am already deleting this conversation from memory."

WWW

After school, he made his way to the hotel where he had left Vin. He was half sure she would have run, but if she had then all that meant was that he had been wise to not give her his home address. And there were still all the possibilities that Kallen offered.

He knocked before entering, and when he opened the door, Vin was still there with a knife in her hand. He pretended not to notice. "Good afternoon, Vin. I got you a present." He pulled the bars of metal out of his bag and handed them to her. "Your specific alloy of steel is more common than I thought, and I should have it for you by tomorrow with the rest within the week. Also, I got you a file."

He wasn't sure how well a steel file would work on a steel bar. Perhaps he would need to invest in a diamond saw. That … that sounded expensive, but no one ever said that overthrowing and empire would be cheap. He had saved up a fair amount from his chess games, but he would need a new source of funding.

Vin took the materials, but she eyed him suspiciously, wheels turning in her mind. "That was awfully fast."

Lelouch tried to figure out what she meant. Did she think that he couldn't bring her the metals? Or that he wouldn't? "You're not much good to me without your magic tricks."

Vin studied him for a moment longer. "Fair enough." She spent a few minutes filing bits of each metal into a cup, her hands moving back and forth with practiced efficiency, before drinking it down with water. She smiled, half to herself. "You have no idea how much better that is on your throat than swallowing scrap metal."

WWW

The world Vin was in was a world of machines, she knew, but before that it was a world of builders. The city was full of their creations, structures that put Kredik Shaw to shame, and reached up into a sky unstained by ash. A blue sky, the sort that Vin had only heard about in pre-ascension myths. And below, between patches of asphalt and cement, she saw green plants and flowers, just like from Kelsier's old picture, that testified of a world unbroken by cataclysm.

She had seen most of it the day before, but she had been too busy surviving and killing and running to _see_ much of anything. Now she knew why Lelouch had so easily given her those metals. Even with Allomancy, as long as she didn't understand the customs of this world, as long as she couldn't blend in unnoticed, she would need his help.

It was ironic, in a way. She had first joined Kelsier in his mad plan to overthrow the Final Empire, not because she thought he had the slightest chance of defeating the Lord Ruler, his armies, and his immortal priests, but because she needed to learn something. Then it had been Allomancy; now it was what clothes to wear to avoid looking like she was from another world.

Fortunately, one of the first things they did was go shopping for clothes. Vin let Lelouch pick them out, knowing nothing about the current trends, and ended up with a pair of shoes that fit ( _finally_ ), an outfit he described as "dressy casual," and another one he called "normal casual." She saw a few dresses that almost looked like the gowns she had worn to the balls back in Luthadel if more sleek, but they didn't get any. After all, she wouldn't need to infiltrate the upper echelons of Britannian society, would she?

Still, she picked one off the rack that looked different from the other dresses–like most of it was missing. Maybe if someone wore something else over it or under it, the dress could be considered decent, but none of the clothes in the store came with instructions.

"Do people actually wear things like this around here?"

"Rarely," he admitted. "Though I suspect that specific style will come back into style quite viciously, and then be totally forgotten."

Vin frowned. "Why is that?"

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being overheard and said softly, "Clovis designed it."

Vin blinked. "He designed _dresses_?"

He nodded. "Clovis was a man of many, well, perhaps not talents, but hobbies."

Vin looked back at the dress, and the silk felt like slime in her hands. "You'd think that a ruler would have more important things to do with his time."

"Like responsibilities?" he said with a smile. "That's for the help." He paid for the clothes and they left the store. "We shouldn't speak of him, though. They're covering up what happened and I don't know why. A dead prince should be all over the news, but no one reported on anything from yesterday, not the massacre, not the terrorists, and certainly not … you know."

Vin thought back to her time working with Kelsier. He had killed his share of noblemen, but he had always dropped the body somewhere public, like in a rival's garden. For the old Luthadel nobility, a death in the family wasn't a tragedy, it was an embarrassment.

"After him," she asked, "who's in charge?"

He took a deep breath. "That is still up in the air. Another Viceroy should be appointed in a few weeks, but until then … The Golden Throne currently has the most power, or at least the most wealth, but I doubt they will assume control. The Pureblood faction has always been more … cutthroat, shall we say, and if people believe that Clovis was killed by Japanese terrorists, that will only help their cause. Blaming an Honorary Britannian would be even better."

Vin didn't understand most of that, but she hadn't expected to. "Who would blaming a Britannian prince help?"

He gave her a sardonic look. "Don't be ridiculous. Why would a prince of Britannia commit such a crime?"

"You tell me."

He looked around, as though peering at something in the distance to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. "I'm not a prince."

"He called you his brother."

"I was armed, and he was frantic."

"So he was lying?"

"Exaggerating."

Vin considered using zinc on him, but she decided against it. She only had her metals because he had given them to her, and she wasn't going to betray that trust. "So who are you then?"

"I could ask you the same question, Vin. Who are _you_ , that you can metabolize metal in ways unheard of?"

She shrugged. "It's far from unheard of where I'm from."

"And where is that?" He had piercing eyes of a shade that Vin had seen only once before. He would use anything he gave her in any way he could, but she couldn't think of how that piece of information would help him. If anything, it would serve to make him underestimate her.

"Okay," she said finally. "But you first."

He hesitated, as though weighing the value of what his secret compared to hers. "Fair enough," he said at last.

He led her to a nearby park and they sat down on a bench. There were several parks scattered throughout the city. In Luthadel, plants that weren't brown were cultivated in noblemen's gardens, and they were tended to constantly so they wouldn't drown under the continuous ashfalls. Vin had heard that the finest gardens of the Final Empire paled in comparison to an abandoned, pre-Ascension field, but she had assumed that to have been a fantasy as wild as green plants themselves.

Now though, seeing the park–Lord Ruler, seeing flowers bloom out of cracks in the sidewalk–the stories seemed less ridiculous.

"Have you ever seen a pit fight, Vin?" Lelouch asked. "You take two hungry dogs, put them in a pit together, and a cheering crowd bets on which dog makes it out alive."

"I haven't, but I've heard of them." In Luthadel, they were called blood fights, and to not offend nobles fond of dogs, they used skaa instead. That had ended when the Lord Ruler died and the Final Empire fell.

"The Emperor does that with his children. By surviving their siblings, the princes and princesses of Britannia prove themselves worthy of their father's throne. What is a matter of life and death for his flesh and blood and the sovereignty of nations is but a game to that man, and not one that he is in a position to lose."

Vin raised an eyebrow. "And that's why you killed Clovis? To win his game?"

Lelouch shook his head and smiled with bitter lips and hungry eyes. "No, I've already lost. I offended him in my childhood, so he sent me as a hostage to the ruler of this country before he conquered it. It's an old political tactic, where the ruler wants to forge an alliance with a less trusting one, so offers a close relative as collateral. Since any betrayal would result in the hostage's death, the alliance may proceed. Of course, as soon as the Prime Minister of Japan let his guard down, the Emperor set this country on fire–but on the bright side, the airstrikes, chaos, and wanton destruction made it child's play to fake my death.

"But I digress. If the Emperor were to suffer a happy, fatal accident today, the Empire would fall to the First Prince with the Second Prince pulling the strings, and the rest of the Royal Family either resisting in futility or accepting the inevitable. However, if they all die, every prince and princess spawned by his lust and indifference, and then the Emperor himself follows them into his well-deserved grave, then the Empire falls apart, his goal of finding a worthy successor to his throne fails, and suddenly, he has lost the game. Oh, and with the Empire gone, the world will be free of the threat and reality of Britannian oppression, so that's good too."

Vin nodded slowly. It made sense, in a callous, logical sort of way. The Lord Ruler, confident in his immortality, had never declared an heir. No one had thought he _could_ die, so his death had left his Empire shattered. Still, the chaos that ensued with skaa not knowing what to do with such an alien concept as freedom and warlords anxious to find out had ended only when she had helped Elend conquer it all back again, recreating much of what Kelsier's crew had hoped to destroy.

No, Lelouch's plan would need to be molded, and Lelouch himself would need to be watched, even assuming that he had told her the truth (which was doubtful) and that he had left nothing out (which was laughable).

"Okay," she said. "So you're going to slaughter his children, assassinate him, and watch the world burn."

"Yes. That is the plan."

"I'm not sure how I feel about it," she admitted. "Clovis had to go, and the Emperor …" He was meddling with powers beyond his ken. "He's even worse, but destroying the entire Empire would be a _massacre_."

"No. _Submission_ is a massacre. You saw it, Vin! Nearly an entire ghetto slaughtered for one man's whim, and all over the world it's the same thing. Not only did the Empire put Clovis in a position where he could do as he wished, but it is a basic Britannian creed that everything he did was right, simply because he could. No, destroying Britannia isn't a massacre, it's justice." The fire in his voice cooled and he continued. "But I understand if you're hesitant. I'll tell you what. There won't be much we can do until the next prince or princess arrives to assume the role of Viceroy, and after they get here, you can watch them and judge them to be worthy of life or death. If you deem them worthy of life, then you may leave and I won't stop you."

Vin doubted that, but Kelsier had made her a similar offer when trying to recruit her to his impossible plan. Lelouch wasn't Kelsier, but by the time she had to make her choice, she might not need him anymore.

"Fair enough," she said. "So now it's my turn, is it? I'm from Scadrial."

"Scadrial?" he repeated. "I'm not familiar with that."

"It's another world." She waited for an expression of shock or incredulity to cross his face, but she was disappointed.

"Fair enough. If people with your abilities occurred naturally, they would need to be kept secluded. And this world Scadrial, it has more people like you?"

Vin nodded. "Allomancers aren't common, but we're well known."

"And your civilization has spacecraft? Interplanetary travel?"

"Spacecraft? No, of course not. As far as transportation goes, we have horses and canals."

He frowned. "Then did you get to this world with magic? Some sort of Allomancy?"

Vin hesitated. "It's complicated." She didn't understand most of it herself. Under the bench was a patch of dirt uncovered by grass. She knelt down on the ground and drew a circle with her finger. "Let's say this is reality as you understand it, the body of existence, and your world is here and Scadrial is here." She drew a mark at the top and bottom of the circle. "If you go deeper, you get here." She drew a second circle within the first. "This is the mind of existence. In the body, you can look up at night and see the stars, but in the mind, distance is more condensed, and instead of seeing the stars, you could walk there."

Finally, she drew a dot at the center. "If you go deeper still, you reach reality's soul. Here, distance means next to nothing and time … time gets weird. I found my way to the soul, but instead of coming out on Scadrial's side of the mind, I ended up on Earth's side."

She thought. She had been holding the power of divinity at the time–no, she had been the vessel of divinity at the time, with infinite comprehension seeping into her mind second by second in a realm where time had no meaning. She had been focusing on stopping another god from destroying everything she knew, but collected a few scraps of knowledge like the Allomantic properties of four metals she had never before heard of.

"I see," Lelouch said slowly. "So instead of faster-than-light travel, you traveled to another dimension where the fabric of spacetime was condensed to a manageable level. A wormhole? A black hole?"

"Sure." She didn't know what worms had to do with anything, but if Lelouch understood it, good for him. She might need him to explain it to her later.

"But if you weren't planning on traveling to another planet, what were you doing in the center of reality?"

"Oh, the same thing I do anywhere else." It wasn't a lie. Technically. She needed to change the subject. She pointed at the Earth-side point of the inner circle. "But what should really interest you is who I met when I got here."

Lelouch frowned. "Did you meet anyone? If people from this world had the technology for interdimensional travel, I think I would have heard of it."

"You do," Vin insisted. "Your world has at least one Perpendicularity."

"And that is?"

"Something that draws a perpendicular line from the Physical to the Cognitive. But because they act as elevators to the Realm of Thought, your father called them Thought Elevators."

And with that, Lelouch lost all interest in Vin's brief stint as a god.

WWW

The next day Lelouch returned with a bar of Allomantically pure steel, and they spent the next few hours trying on sunglasses and looking at mask designs.

"I can understand how this is useful," Vin said, trying on a pair of glasses designed for watching a solar eclipse. Earth had a moon encircling it, and sometimes that moon blocked out the sun, which made people … want to look at it, for some reason. Earth people were strange, but they built quality eye protection. "But what good is a mask?"

With the sunglasses on, she could see little except for the sun itself. Even burning tin until the background noise of the cars and buildings became overwhelming, the world still seemed dark. She took them off and tried another pair.

"Do you see that?" Lelouch asked, pointing at a small black dome on the ceiling of the store they were in.

She could, even without tin. She frowned at it. She might have thought it served some aesthetic purpose, but now that she looked right at it, it seemed like one of the countless devices that cluttered the world. "What is it? It feels like it's watching me."

"It is, actually," Lelouch said. "It's a security camera. Practically everywhere you go, you will be in sight of one of them."

" _What_?"

"That's no cause for paranoia, of course," he continued. "There's too much information to process, and anyone looking for you would need an army to rifle through the footage, but if you were to draw attention to yourself and, say, rob the store, the police would study the recording, find your face, and show it to everyone they meet until they find you."

The little black dome loomed overhead. If she burned iron or steel, she could rip it from the ceiling, but that would only arouse suspicion. "Sounds dangerous. Can it hear us too?"

"Some can, though I doubt that one has audio. But wait, it gets better–because everyone you meet is likely to have one these in their pockets." He pulled out a device, one that Vin actually recognized. It was a phone, used to communicate across long distances. He pointed it at the store clerk, and it clicked. He handed it to her, and the phone had the clerk's image frozen on its screen.

"What? How?"

He shrugged. "Technology. Even if I understood it better, I doubt I'd be able to explain it. Besides, all you need to know is that everyone is watching, everyone is listening, and if you ever draw attention to yourself, they _will_ remember you."

Vin swallowed. Elend had always teased her for being paranoid, but she was the one who had to deal with all the assassins sent after him. This, however? This was nearly as bad as knowing she had the mind of a mad, homicidal god in her head.

Almost.

"So, masks," she said finally. "Masks are nice."

They spent the next few hours discussing masks, cameras, and anything else Vin had a question about until it started to get dark. Lelouch hailed a taxi, but not to take her home.

"1909 Forty-Seventh Street, please," he told the driver.

"You got it, boss," the driver said, smiling. Vin wasn't good at telling them apart, but she suspected that the man was Japanese, if only by the service he provided. Britannians sometimes worked as taxi drivers, but they were usually more indignant about it.

"Where are we going?" she whispered.

He smiled. "I have a mission for you. I'd like you to meet a new recruit."

WWW

Kallen stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a fluffy white robe and a towel around her head, and saw a stranger sitting on her bookshelf. She sighed.

"Why does this always happen when I'm in the tub?" she asked. "I swear, the mailman rings the doorbell, I'm in the tub. Little girls selling cookies, tub. Strangers lurking in my bedroom, tub!"

The sun had set while she was taking a bath, and the only light in the room came in through her bathroom door. The stranger didn't look very intimidating, and if anything was even smaller than she was.

"Is this a bad time?" the stranger said, her voice soft and feminine. "This seems like a bad time."

"Oh, no," Kallen said, trying to figure out what sort of intruder would be lurking in her bedroom but not attack her outright. "Didn't you hear me? I always entertain guests in my bathrobe, so why don't you tell me what you want, and then get the hell out of my house."

She cocked her head. As Kallen's eyes began to adjust, she determined that the woman was wearing her hood up. "Your name is Kallen Stadtfeld, right?"

 _No_. "Yes."

"And you were at Shinjuku two days ago piloting the … Glasgow, correct?"

Kallen's blood froze. "Glasgow? That's an old model Knightmare frame, right? Sorry, I can't remember the last time I've been to Shinjuku, and I've never piloted a Knightmare."

"Oh," the woman said. "I'll be on my way, then. Sorry for disturbing you." She dropped off the bookshelf and started towards the window, which was the last thing Kallen wanted.

 _Idiot!_ If she even _suspected_ Kallen of being involved with the Japanese Resistance, then there was no way she could afford to let her leave alive. "Wait! In a, um, hypothetical situation where I said yes, what would you have done?"

She stopped and turned slowly. On the ground, she seemed even less intimidating, but she carried herself with the grace of a cat and the confidence of … an even bigger cat. "I would have offered you a spot in our crew. My friend, who's putting this together, said that you followed orders without question and had such control over your Knightmare, you'd put the finest Britannian knights to shame, despite piloting a trash heap. His words, not mine."

High praise indeed, but she knew she was only an ameteur with an inordinate amount of beginner's luck. She decided to let the trash heap comment by. Barely. The Glasgow may have been a clunky, outdated, and poorly maintained piece of machinery, but it was hers, darn it! And now it was dead.

"This friend of yours," Kallen said, moving over to the light switch. "Should I know him?" She flipped the switch, and the ceiling light exploded. There was a flash of light, and then shattered glass sprayed across the room. In that instant, though, Kallen caught a glimpse of the woman mid-flinch, stretching out her arm toward the light.

She was wearing sunglasses. Sunglasses. Who wore sunglasses, inside, at night, with the lights off?

She straightened as though nothing had happened. "Yes. He told me that when you two last spoke, he named you Q-1."

Kallen's eyes grew wide. _Him_! Two days ago when she was being hounded by Sutherlands and everything had gone to crap, a voice had come out of nowhere on their radio frequency, confident to the point of being condescending, and turned the battle around like it was child's play. Until that white Knightmare frame came out of nowhere and cut through them like a chainsaw through butter.

"So he made it out okay? And what was with that ceasefire order? Was that him too?" She started to step forward, but remembered that there was shattered glass all over the floor and she was barefoot. Crap. She considered putting on her slippers, but dismissed the idea. She was already being contacted by another resistance cell in her bathrobe, she was not going to throw fluffy bunny slippers into the situation as well. She stood on the far side of the room, pretending like that was exactly what she wanted to be doing.

"Yes, he's fine. We stopped by to see Clovis on the way out, persuaded him to withdraw his forces, and he shot him in the head."

Kallen blinked. "Clovis shot him in the head? But you said he was fine!"

"No, he shot Clovis in the head."

"What? _What_?"

"Which no one knows about yet for some reason. You'd think news of a dead–what was he?–a dead Viceroy would have gotten around, but it's been kept real quiet."

Kallen felt her head spinning. Clovis, the slimy, disgusting little rat, had been the face of Britannia to her for years, and now he was dead? Just like that? It seemed too good to be true, but everything about that voice had been. She had trusted him then, so she would trust her now.

"Alright," she said finally. "You said you were going to offer me a spot on your crew? Count me in." Ohgi sometimes called her reckless, but when she saw an opportunity, she lunged for it, and this one had fallen right into her lap. "But I just want to make one thing clear. You and your friend seem like really clever people, but you got my name wrong. I'm not Kallen Stadtfeld. That's my Brit name. When I want to be able to look at myself without throwing up, I'm Kallen Kouzuki."

"I'll be sure to pass that along." She tossed a small object to Kallen. A phone. "He'll keep in touch." With that, the woman jumped out the window.

When Kallen finally relented, put on her slippers, and looked outside, the woman was nowhere to be seen. _So the mysterious voice is a secretive mastermind, and he has his own ninja._ That was actually one of the more believable aspects of the situation.

She set down the new phone, pulled out her old one, and dialed Ohgi's number. He was going to want to know about this.

WWW

A/n And once more, chapter three ends at about the same time as episode three, only without the cliffhanger where Suzaku gets arrested. Thank you to everyone who left reviews, and thank you again Magery for editing this.

I hope the crash course into Realmatic Theory wasn't too much of an infodump, but it's part of my grander scheme of making Code Geass Cosmere. Also, I've been reading Arcanum Unbounded, where along with containing a whole bunch of short stories, Brandon Sanderson actually explains how the universe works from an outsider's perspective. For example, did you know that Scadrial has no moon? I didn't, but there's a whole bunch of nifty little maps that show you that.

Anyway, that's my book advertisement, and I promise not to try to sell you anything else, at least until the next chapter.


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